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[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of 
Engineering Education, Volume XtlL, 1905.] 


OPPORTUNITIES FOR ENGINEERING GRAD¬ 
UATES IN THE GOVERN¬ 
MENT SERVICE. 

BY JOHN F. HAYFORD, 

» I 

Chief of Computing Division Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

The civil service of the government is a vast organi¬ 
zation, including more than a quarter of a million peo¬ 
ple. It is an extremely complicated organization, 
partly on account of the great variety of the work done 
by it, partly because it is a century’s growth, not a 
creation. 

I shall deal only with the opportunities for graduates > ,,, 
in civil, mechanical, electrical and mining engineering. 

The opportunities for engineers from West Point will 
be omitted. They are closed to others. The Isthmian 
Canal work will not be included, as I did not succeed in 
becoming well posted in regard to it. The positions 
for which the pay is less than $700 per year are also 
excluded from the statistics to be given. There will be 
included all positions to which the engineering graduate 
may hope to rise by merit, not simply the entering 
positions. 

The statistics given are believed to be sufficiently 
accurate for the purpose and are expressed in round 
numbers. In cases of disagreement between different 
authorities the figures which make the government ser¬ 
vice less attractive are used. 

Within the limits stated there are 2,600 opportunities 

for engineering graduates in the government service. 

( 87 ) 


88 ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 

For 46 per cent, of these positions the pay is between 
$700 and $1,400 per year; for about 32 per cent., from 
$1,500 to $1,900; for 18 per cent., $2,000 to $2,900; for 
three per cent., $3,000 to $3,900; and for nearly one per 
cent., $4,000 or over. These figures are for salary only, 
they do not include allowances for expenses, subsist¬ 
ence and quarters furnished, etc., which are received by 
many. 

There are nearly 700 opportunities under the Chief 
of Engineers of the army for engineering graduates. 
This force includes 180 assistant engineers or super¬ 
intendents, 150 junior engineers, and 70 draftsmen. 
The lake survey is a part of this group of 700. 

There are more than 500 opportunities in connection 
with navy yards and naval stations. This includes 40 
civil engineers and constructors, and nearly 400 drafts¬ 
men. 

In the engineering force of the Reclamation Service, 
under the Geological Survey, there are 360 engineers. 
This service is growing very rapidly and will probably 
continue to do so for several years. Hence, it furnishes 
the best chance in the government service for the rapid 
advancement of unusually able men, with the possible 
exception of the Panama Canal work. 

Three hundred patent examiners are employed in the 
Patent Office. 

In the Coast and Geodetic Survey there are 140 op¬ 
portunities for engineering graduates; 90 in the field 
force, 20 as draftsmen, and 20 as computers. 

There are 130 opportunities under the General Land 
Office. 

The remaining 500 opportunities are scattered 


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Carnegie Inst. 
24 Ja • J07 



ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 89 

through the service. The largest groups are in the 
Topographic Branch of the Geological Survey, in the 
Revenue Cutter Service in charge of marine engines, 
under the Supervising Architect as superintendent, and 
in the engineer department of the District of Columbia. 

New appointments are being made at the rate of 
about 200 per year to repair the waste in the force of 
2,600, and to produce the steady expansion which is 
normally in progress. 

Nearly all of the 2,600 positions are in the classified 
service, to which entrance is guarded by the Civil Ser¬ 
vice Commission. 

How can a professor of engineering secure informa¬ 
tion in regard to these examinations, and in regard to 
positions in the government service to which his stu¬ 
dents may aspire? 

By writing to the Civil Service Commission in his 
official capacity, he may have the Manual of Examina¬ 
tions sent to him regularly twice a year. This contains, 
for all regular examinations, the announcement of the 
dates and places of examinations, and of the scope of 
each separate examination. It also contains informa¬ 
tion as to applications for examination,* methods of 
appointment and conditions of first employment. 

In the same manner he may secure the annual report 
of the Civil Service Commission containing informa¬ 
tion in regard to the manner in which the Civil Ser¬ 
vice Act has been enforced and the civil service rules 
applied, and in regard to the general condition of the 
service. Incidentally, the report indicates the relative 
prospects of appointment in various lines. 

The official register of the United States contains a 


90 ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 

full list of the employees of the United States. Unfor¬ 
tunately, it may not be accessible to all of you. 

For many examinatiQns, especially examinations re¬ 
quiring technical qualifications, the Civil Service Com¬ 
mission distributes special printed announcements 
about one month in advance of the examination. Any 
professor of engineering may have all such announce¬ 
ments, covering specified lines, sent to him regularly 
merely by making a request in writing to that effect. 
The student, or graduate, may also, as an individual, 
apply for these announcements and receive them as 
they appear. 

Do not write for an application blank for an exami¬ 
nation which has not yet been officially announced. 

By using the manual and annual report and the 
special announcements of examinations, the professor 
of engineering may keep in close touch with nearly all 
the opportunities for appointment of his graduates to 
the classified civil service, except the following two 
large classes. 

First, the five hundred positions which have been 
referred to in connection with the navy yards and naval 
stations are filled by examinations held under the direc¬ 
tion of the Navy Department, not the Civil Service 
Commission. Many of these examinations are adver¬ 
tised and held only in the locality in which the appoint¬ 
ment is to be made. Information in regard to these 
examinations must be obtained at the Navy Department 
at Washington, or from the officers having local charge 
of the work. 

Second, there are two methods of entrance to the 
position of junior engineer under the Chief of Engi- 


ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 91 

neers; namely, by a civil service examination, known 
as the 44 civil engineer, departmental service ’ ’ examina¬ 
tion, and by promotion from lower grades in the ser¬ 
vice, under the Chief of Engineers, such, for example, 
as inspector, recorder, transitman, levelman, rodman, 
or cliainman. Appointments are made to these lower 
grades from registers of eligibles established at vari¬ 
ous points by local boards of civil service examiners, 
without examination. Any employee may be promoted 
from one of these lower grades to the grade of junior 
engineer on the recommendation of his employing 
officer, provided he passes the appropriate examination 
held under the direction of the Civil Service Commis¬ 
sion. If he holds a diploma of graduation in an engi¬ 
neering course from an approved technical school he 
may, after one year’s service, be so promoted without 
examination. This is the class to which your atten¬ 
tion is especially called. For more complete data ap¬ 
ply to the Chief of Engineers for the circular known as 
4 4 information concerning positions under the engineer 
department at large.” 

Information in regard to rates of promotion, pros¬ 
pects of promotion, character of service required, and 
the conditions of service, must, in general, be obtained 
from the different bureaus or departments concerned in 
much the same way that it is obtained in regard to 
positions outside the government service; that is, by 
correspondence or personal acquaintance with those in 
charge or with the employees. Such information can¬ 
not, except to a limited extent, be obtained from the 
Civil Service Commission. 

Promotions in the government service are made on 


I 

92 ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 

merit. Merit is, as a rule, ascertained in much the same 
manner as in any large organization, by observations 
of the employee’s work by his official superiors. It is 
placed on record by the recommendations of those 
superiors. 

In the Reclamation Service, such recommendations 
are all placed twice a year in the hands of a committee 
of three men of high rank in the service who have 
a wide acquaintance with the personnel. This com¬ 
mittee virtually decides what promotions shall be made, 
subject, of course, to approval. A similar system is in 
force in the Geological Survey as a whole. 

Under the Chief of Engineers, promotions from junior 
engineer to assistant engineer depend upon recommen¬ 
dations by the official superiors but are also subject to 
two conditions. The candidate must, at some time, 
have passed the civil engineer examination before the 
Civil Service Commission, and he must possess the pro¬ 
fessional qualifications that are required for full mem¬ 
bership in the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 
general, an assistant engineer is selected from among 
the junior engineers in the district in which he is to 
serve. That is, the civilian employees in general stay 
in a given district on the work with which they are 
familiar, though the officers of the Corps of Engineers, 
under whom they serve, are periodically transferred 
from station to station. 

As a rule, any attempt on the part of a government 
employee to bring political influence to bear to secure 
a promotion is interpreted as a confession on his part 
that he does not feel that he has sufficient merit to 
warrant promotion. The confession is apt to be taken 
at face value. Such confessions are rare. 


ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 93 


The theory of the system of promotion is that since 
the reputation of the executive officer depends directly 
and intimately upon the efficiency of the force under 
him, he can be depended upon for selfish, as well as 
unselfish, reasons to promote the best men. 

There is a saying that in the government service few 
die and none resign. How much truth is there in it? 
About as much as there is in the mother-in-law joke. 
In the portion of the service in which the tendency to 
remain for life is apparently greatest, namely, in the 
classified service in Washington, there are about five 
times as many resignations as deaths each year. In 
the civil service as a whole, there are about ten times 
as many resignations as deaths. 

Closely associated with the idea that few die and 
none resign is the idea that all work under fixed salary 
lists, that no promotions can be made except to fill va¬ 
cancies caused by death or resignations, and that such 
promotions are based almost entirely on seniority. 
Only about one half of the 2,600 engineers are paid 
from a fixed salary list. The remainder are paid from 
lump sum appropriations. Where the fixed salary list 
exists, seniority is considered, and properly so, in 
making promotions, but it does not control when there 
is a well-marked difference of merit in favor of the 
junior. 

An unsuccessful attempt was made to secure statis¬ 
tics as to the rates of pay of engineers outside the gov¬ 
ernment service for comparison with those given in 
the first part of this paper. I shall be much indebted 
to anyone who can put me in the way of obtaining such 
statistics. 





94 ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 

In comparing the rates of pay stated in this paper 
with similar rates outside the government, four advan¬ 
tages of the government service should be kept in mind. 
First, the government is liberal in paying traveling ex¬ 
penses and subsistence, and in some cases, in furnishing 
quarters. Second, the hours of service required by the 
government in office positions are short. Third, the 
government employee is liberally treated in regard to 
leave with pay. Fourth, the engineer under the gov¬ 
ernment has more continuous service, as a rule, than 
an engineer outside. Even under the great corpora¬ 
tions, such as the largest of the railroad systems, the 
service is much less continuous than under the govern¬ 
ment. A change among the higher officials in a rail¬ 
way service frequently leads to many changes in sub¬ 
ordinate positions on account of favoritism. The new 
official brings with him the subordinates with whom he 
is acquainted and makes removals to provide room for 
them. On account of restrictions by the Civil Service 
Act and rules, and for other reasons, these wholesale 
removals do not occur in the government service. 

There is a prejudice against the government service 
on the ground that young men do not get a chance to 
develop, that they are kept in minor positions with little 
responsibility, that they lose energy, that their powers 
of initiative remain undeveloped. In so far as engi¬ 
neers in the government service are concerned this prej¬ 
udice bears little relation to the facts. As a rule, the 
young engineer is worked hard, and is given all the 
responsibility he is competent to carry. The officials 
in control are constantly hunting among their subor¬ 
dinates for men who will stand responsibility. In the 


ENGINEERING IN THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE. 95 

Coast and Geodetic Survey tlie captain of one of the 
steamers engaged in Philippine surveys, has been out 
of college but five years, and the commander of the 
finest Survey steamer on the Atlantic has had but twelve 
years’ experience in the Survey, and has already been 
in command three and one half years. The Govern¬ 
ment service has disadvantages. They are the dis¬ 
advantages which are inherent to service with any 
large organization. 

The opinion of the average man in regard to the gov¬ 
ernment service is based on the traditions and preju¬ 
dices of a generation ago, not on present facts. The 
merit system began to go into effect hut little more than 
twenty years ago. You are asked to judge the service 
by the present facts. The speaker is confident that if 
you examine the facts thoroughly you will find that he 
has not overstated the case in favor of Uncle Sam. 

The engineering work of the government is done in 
an energetic, efficient manner. If you send your best 
graduates to it, you will find, either that they stay with 
it because they like it, or that they will go out into 
other work and will find that their experience in the 
government service has been a valuable training to 
them. If you send your poorest men to us, you will 
find them, in time, squeezed out by better men. 














































